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PROGRAM AND SELECTIONS 

For its Celebration, Wednesday, April 
13tli, 1910, in the Schools of Alabama 



I PTQ. CO MONTGOME 



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Thomas Jefferson's 
Birthday 



PROGRAM AND SELECTIONS 
FOR ITS CELEBRATION 
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13 

19 JO 



IN THE 



SCHOOLS 



OF 



ALABAMA 




ISSUED BY 

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

1910 



Sl<0<m PTQ. CO. MONTGOMERY, 









THE VALUE OF HISTORY. 



To every country its own history is of prime importance. 
Upon this, its national character and its national sentiments 
depend. Patriotism, the first of civic virtues, can have no in- 
telligent basis, beyond a blind instinct, save in a just appre- 
ciation of the excellencies which have marked the career of a 
country ; — of the services, sufferings, and devotion of its 
sons; of the justice, beauty and utility of its institutions; of 
its adaptation to the wants of civilized society, and of the les- 
sons of heroism, philanthropy, and intellectual and moral 
grandeur which its annauls present. How essential then, to 
every State or nation which aspires to be more than a mere 
Sahara in history, that its records should be compiled and 
embodied, and its chronicles, vivified and embellished by the 
touches of genius — be rendered imperishable monuments for 
future ages. — Alexander B. Meek, Romantic Passages in 
Southwestern History, pp. 74-75. 

D. Of 0. 

APR t 



^ PREFATORY. 



To the Teachers of Alabama : 

So far as I can learn Alabama is the first State in the Union 
to set aside the birthday of that great American, Thomas Jef- 
ferson, as a legal holiday. At the suggestion of Col. Sam'l 
Will John, who I understand is responsible for this designa- 
tion, the Department of Education is issuing a suggestive pro- 
gram for the celebration of this day. . 

I can imagine no event which can be more appropriately 
celebrated in the schools of the State than the birth of 
Thomas Jefferson. His work for the cause of education, for 
the uplift of the masses, his statesmanship, his patriotism and 
prophetic vision have made the South, especially, what it is 
in an educational way. Let us do him honor. 

Jefferson wrote his own epitaph and it is inscribed on his 
tombstone at Monticello. It reads as follows : 

Here was buried 

THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Author 

of the Declaration of 

American Independence, 

of 

The Statute of Virginia 

for religious freedom, and 

Father of the University 

of Virginia. 

On the bit of paper upon which Jefferson had written the 
inscription that he desired on his monument was added the fol- 
lowing sentence : 

"Because, by these, as testimonials that I have lived, 

I wish most to be remembered." 

This great man, a former President of the United States, 
having occupied other official positions of great prominence, 
declared that he wanted to live in the memory of the people 



— 4— 

not for these, but on account of what he had done in the name 
of pohtical and .rehgious freedom and the cause of education. 
I wish to acknowledge the indebtedness of this office for 
the vakiable aid given by Col. Sam'l Will John, Dr. Thomas 
M. Owen, the Director of the Department of Archives and 
History, and Mr. W. C. Swanson in the preparation of this 
pamphlet. 



Yours very truly, 




•'iX<L^ 



Supt. of Education. 



SUGGESTIVE ORDER OF EXERCISES. 



(The order of exercises below is given as a suggestive help 
to the teacher. It can be varied to suit the individual taste. 
Selections given may be omitted, and others may be intro- 
duced. The numbers correspond with the numbers of the 
selection.) 

1. Song-, "Alabama." By the entire school. To be followed 

by an invocation by a minister. 
3. The significance of the Jefferson anniversary. By Col. 

Sam'l Will John. 

3. Biographical outline. Compiled by W. C. Swanson. 

4. Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. 

5. Song, "Maryland, My Maryland!" 

6. Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence and 

Franklin's anecdote of the "hatter." 

7. Statute of Virginia for religious freedom. 

8. Jefferson's most famous words. 

9. Adams and Jefferson. 

10. Objects of Primary Education as Defined by Jefferson. 

11. The Father of the University of Virginia. 

12. The Louisiana Purchase. 

13. Stories of Jefferson. 

14. Washington's estimate of Jefferson. 

15. Song, "Dixie's Land." By the entire school. 

16. Patriotic Motives of Jefferson. 

17. Jefferson on Popular Government. 

18. Jefferson on Botany. 

19. Song, "Oh, Columbia, the gem of the Ocean." 

20. Jefferson and Our Decimal Money System. 

21. Jefferson on the Study of History. 

22. Monticello, the home of Jefferson. 

23. Lincoln's' tribute to Jefferson. 

24. Some of the policies and events of Jefferson's administra- 

tion illustrated by pictures. 

25. Song, "America." By the entire school. 



1. ALABAMA. 
By Miss Julia S. Tutwiler. 



OUR STATE SONG — ADOPTED BY PUBUC SCHOOLS OE THE STATE. 

Air — Harzwll or The Austrian National Hymn. 



Alabama, Alabama, 

We will aye be true to thee, 

From thy Southern shore where groweth. 

By the sea thy orange tree, 

To thy Northern vale where floweth, 

Deep and blue thy Tennessee, 

Alabama, Alabama, 

We will aye be true to thee ! 

Broad the Stream whose name thou bearest; 

Grand thy Bigbee rolls along; 

Fair thy Coosa — Tallapoosa ; 

Bold thy Warrior, dark and strong ; 

Goodlier than the land that Moses 

Climbed lone Nebo's Mount to see, 

Alabama, Alabama, 

We will aye be true to thee ! 

From thy prairies broad and fertile. 
Where the snow-white cotton shines, 
To the hills where coal and iron 
Hide in thy exhaustless mines. 
Strong-armed miners — sturdy farmers; 
Loyal hearts whate'er we be, 
Alabama, Alabama, 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

From thy quarries where the marble 
White as that of Paros gleams. 
Waiting 'till thy sculptor's chisel, 
Wake to life thy poet's dreams; 



For not only wealth of nature, 
Wealth of mind hast thou in fee, 
Alabama, Alabama, 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

5. Where the perfumed south-wind whispers, 
Thy magnolia groves among, 

Softer than a mother's kisses, 
Sweeter than a mother's song; 
Where the golden jasmine trailing. 
Wooes the treasure-laden bee, 
Alabama, Alabama, 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

6. Brave and pure thy men and women. 
Better this- than corn and wine. 
Make us worthy, God in heaven, 

Of this goodly land of thine; 
Hearts as open as our doorways. 
Liberal hands and spirits free, 
Alabama, Alabama, 
We will aye be true to thee ! 

7. Little, little, can I give thee, 
Alabama, mother mine ; 

But that little, hand, brain, spirit, — 
All I have and am are thine. 
Take, O take the gift and giver, 
Take and serve thyself with me, 
Alabama, Alabama, 
I will aye be true to thee. 



-S 



3. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE JEFFERSON 
ANNIVERSARY. 

By Col. Sam'l Will John, of Birmingham. 

{To he read by the teacher.) 

On April 13, 1910, will be celebrated the birth of Thomas- 
Jefferson, the greatest constructive Statesman in all the tides 
of time, Moses alone excepted. 

It is, by law, made a legal holiday in Alabama, and so far 
as I can find, this is the only State that has paid this small 
tribute to the worth and services of the greatest Democrat 
who ever lived, and labored for his fellow men. 

Jefferson was the first to construct an articulate plan of 
public education, outlined as follows : 1. Elementary Schools, 
for all children generally, rich and poor, without distinction. 
2. Colleges, or as they are more usually styled in this coun- 
try, Academies, for a middle degree of instruction, calculated 
for the common purposes of life, yet such as would be de- 
sirable for all. 3. A University, in the room of William and 
Mary College, as the ultimate grade, for teaching the sciences 
generally, and in their highest degree. 4. Public Libraries. 

This plan was prepared for Virginia, but has never been 
improved upon, and has gradually been adopted by most of 
the States, though Alabama did not establish the middle grade 
of Schools, now generally called High Schools, till the pas- 
sage of the Act, approved August 7, 1907. 

Mr. Jefferson's plan provided for the annual selection and 
promotion, of the most promising students, through the dif- 
ferent grades, on to, and through the University, at the pub- 
lic expense. 

His reason for this grandest plan of education ever formed" 
by the mind of man, is best given in his own words : "Ge- 
nius and worth would thus be sought out of every walk of 
life ; and to adopt a favorite sentiment of the author, the ver- 
itable aristocracy of nature would be completely prepared by 
the laws, for defying and defeating the 'psuedo-aristocracy of 
wealth and birth,' in the competition for public trusts." 



— 9— 

His motto was : "For I have sworn upon the Altar of 
God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the 
mind of man." And he was not content to have sworn this', 
but devoted the latest years of his life to building the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, and starting it onward in the great work 
of freeing the minds of men from the greatest of all tyrannies 
— ignorance. 

So potent was his spirit and influence, that they are still 
felt and breathed in that noblest, grandest of Democratic 
Schools. 

A short time before the assembling of the Convention to 
frame the first Constitution of Maine, Hon. William King, 
afterwards President of the Convention, visited Mr. Jefferson 
in his home at Monticello to consult the great constitution- 
alist about the frame of the Constitution of the new State. 

At Mr. King's request, Mr. Jefferson wrote an article, which 
Mr. King succeeded in having incorporated in the Constitu- 
tion, as Article VHI — "Literature" — of the first Constitu- 
tion of Maine. 

It breathes out Mr. Jefferson's ardent love of freedom, 
points the way to freedom from the bondage of ignorance, and 
declares it to be the duty of the Legislature "to require the 
several towns to make suitable provision at their own expense, 
for the support and maintenance of public schools; and to en- 
courage and suitably endow academies, colleges and semina- 
ries of learning ; but no institution shall be endowed, unless 
the Legislature of the State shall have the right to grant any 
further powers, to alter, limit or restrain any of the powers 
vested in any such literary institution." 

This was the first Constitution, which provided for the es- 
tablishing of public schools, and maintaining them by local 
taxation, and the first distinct renunciation of that false doc- 
trine, promulgated by Marshall through the opinion of the \J. 
S. Supreme Court in the Dartmouth College case. 

Had this truth been apprehended, this warning heeded by 
the makers of all subsequently adopted State Constitutions, 
we would not now be in a life and death struggle with the 
holders of predatory wealth for the preservation of the right 
of a State to regulate the internal affairs of its people, which 
right is constantly being chiseled away by the U. S. Courts. 

2 TJ 



-10- 



His last prayer was, that he mio:ht hve to see the fiftieth 
anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and having- 
seen its sun rise to the glory of the meridian, he bid farewell 
to his daughter and friends, and as his spirit was leaving his 
body, he was heard to whisper the prayer of Simeon : "Lord^ 
now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." 

Among his papers was found the plan of a simple monu- 
ment to mark his grave ; and the simple, though characteristic 
epitaph, which was engraved thereon when it was erected : 

"Here was buried 

"Thomas Jefferson, 

"Author of the Declaration of Independence, 

"of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, 

"And Father of the University of Virginia." 
On the base, "Born, April 2, 1743, O. S., Died, July 4, 1826.'' 

^lay the school children of Alabama, learn of his virtues, 
love of freedom, and desire for universal education ; and an- 
nually celebrate his birth, as the greatest benefactor of man- 
kind. 



3. BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE. 

Compiled by Wm. C. Swanson. 

Thomas Jefferson, first son of Peter and Sarah (Randolph) 
Jefferson, was born old style April 2, new style April 13, 1713, 
at Shadwell, Albermarle County, Virginia ; studied at William 
and Mary's College, Williamsburg, and after leaving college 
practiced law successfully several years. Elected in 1769 to 
the Virginia Burgesses, he joined zealously with the revolu- 
tionary party, whose efforts culminated in the Convention of 
1776, when Virginia was committed to the independence pol- 
icy. In that year Jefferson seized the opportunity presented 
by the high tide of revolutionary feeling to secure the enact- 
ment of the Virginia statutes establishing religious freedom 
and abolishing the laws of entail and primogeniture. At the 
same time he was prominent in measures which brought on 
the Continental Congress, in which he was a delegate and 
drew up the Declaration of Independence ; throughout the 
war which followed he was Governor of Virginia ; after the 



—11— 

peace, was elected in 1783 to the Congress of the Confed- 
eration in which his most important services were the estab- 
lishment of a decimal system of money and the inaugural 
formation of the Northwestern Territory. 

Mr. Jefferson was sent in 1781 as Minister from the United 
States to France, remaining in the post five years and doing 
much to strengthen the alliance between the two countries. 
Upon his return he became Secretary of State in the first 
cabinet of President Washington. In that situation were de- 
veloped between Jefiferson and other leaders, principally 
Alexander Hamilton, differences which formed the genesis 
of political parties in the United States. As champion of 
State's rights and popular sovereignty, Jefferson gained a 
position of eminence, and in the election following Washing- 
ton's second term was a strong candidate for the presidency, 
for which he was only narrowly defeated by John Adams, Jef- 
ferson becoming Vice-President, 1797. The strife of the con- 
tending parties reached its height in the elections of 1800, 
when Jefferson was elected President against John Adams, the 
Federal candidate. President Jefferson was re-elected in 1801. 
The most important act of his entire administration was the 
purchase, during his first term, of the Louisiana territory by 
the United States from France, under Napoleon, for eleven 
millions and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, or 60,- 
000,000 francs. 

After his second term in the presidential office, Jefferson 
retired to his estate of Monticello near Charlottesville, Va.,. 
where he spent the remainder of his days. Durings this pe- 
riod his activities were mainly given to founding the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, which he considered his noblest, as it was- 
his last, great undertaking. 

He died at Monticello, July 4, 1826, on the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the immortal declaration he had penned. 

Though born and educated in the first rank of colonial 
life, Mr. Jefferson was a Democrat in theory and in practice. 
He held that the world is governed too much, and that "that 
government is best which governs least." 

In person, Jefferson was tall, well formed, straight, and 
uncommonly strong. He had sandy hair and ruddy complex- 
ion. Owing to the somewhat pronounced ruggedness of his 
features, he could scarcely have been called handsome, vet he 



—12— 

had a tranquil and benevolent countenance, natural and easy 
manners, and a perfect temper. He was one of the best in- 
formed men of his time, and all his habits and instincts were 
those of a student and observer. 



4. THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE DECLARATION 
OF INDEPENDENCE. 

By George; Bancroft. 

The resolution of Congress changed the old thirteen British 
colonies into free and independent states. It remained to set 
forth the reason for this act, and the principles which the new 
people would own as their guides. Of the committee appointed 
for that duty, Thomas Jefiferson of Virginia had received the 
largest number of votes, and was in that manner singled out 
to draft the confession of faith of the rising empire. He owed 
this distinction to respect for the colony which he represented, 
to the consummate ability of the state papers which he had 
already written, and to that general favor which follows merit, 
modesty, and a sweet disposition; but the quality which spe- 
cially fitted him for the task was the sympathetic character of 
his nature, by which he was able with instinctive perception to 
read the soul of the nation and, having collected its best 
thoughts and noblest feelings, give them out in clear and 
bold words, mixed with so little of himself that his country, 
as it went along with him, found nothing but what it recog- 
nized as its own. Born to an independent fortune, he had 
from his youth been an indefatigable student. "The glow of 
one warm thought was worth more to him than money." Of 
a hopeful temperament and a tranquil, philosophic cast of 
mind, always temperate in his mode of life, and decorous 
in his manners, he was a perfect master of his passions. He 
was of a delicate organization, and fond of elegance ; his tastes 
were refined ; laborious in his application to business or the 
pursuit of knowledge, music, the most spiritual of all pleasures 
of the senses, was his favorite recreation ; and he took a never- 
failing delight in the varied beauty of rural life, building him- 
self a home in the loveliest region of his native state. He was 



—13— 

a skillful horseman, and with elastic step would roam the 
mountains on foot. The range of his studies was very wide; 
he was not unfamiliar with the literature of Greece and Rome ; 
had an aptitude for mathematics and mechanics, and loved 
especially the natural sciences ; scorning nothing but metaphy- 
sics. British governors and officials had introduced into Wil- 
liamsburg the prevalent free-thinking of Englishmen of that 
century, and Jefiferson had grown up in its atmosphere ; he was 
not only a hater of priestcraft and superstition and bigotry 
and intolerance, he was thought to be indifferent to religion ; 
yet his instincts all inclined him to trace every fact to a gen- 
eral law, and to put faith in ideal truth ; the w^orld of the senses 
did not bound his aspiration, and he believed more than he 
himself was aware of. He was an idealist in his habits of 
thought and life, and he was kept so, in spite of circumstances, 
by the irresistable bent of his character. He had great power 
in mastering details as well as in searching for general prin- 
ciples. His profession was that of the law, in which he was 
methodical, painstaking and successful ; at the same time he 
pursued it as a science, and was well read in the law of nature 
and of nations. Whatever he had to do, it was his custom tQ 
prepare himself for it carefully ; and in public life, when others 
were at fault, they often found that he had already hewed out 
the way ; so that in council men willingly gave him the lead,^ 
which he never appeared to claim, and was always able to un- 
dertake. But he rarely spoke in public, and was less fit to 
engage in the war of debate than calmly to sum up its con- 
clusions. It was a beautiful trait in his character that he was 
free from envy ; he is the constant and best witness to the 
greatness of John Adams as the advocate and defender of in- 
dependence. A common object now riveted the two statesmen 
together. At that period Jefiferson, by the general consent of 
Virginia, stood first among her civilians. Just thirty-three 
years old, married, and happy in his family, affluent, with a 
bright career before him, he was no rash innovator by his 
character or his position ; if his convictions drove him to de- 
mand independence, it was only because he could no longer 
live v/ith honor under the British "constitution, which he still 
acknowledged to be better than all that had preceded it." His 
enunciation of general principles was fearless, but he was no- 
visionary devotee of abstract theories ; the nursling of his coun- 



—u— 

try, the offspring of his time, he set about the work of a prac- 
tical statesman, and the principles which he set forth grew 
so naturally out of previous law and the facts of the past that 
they struck deep root and have endured. — From History of the 
United States (1888), vol. iv., pp. 442-444. 



5. MARYLAND! MY MARYLAND! 
By James R. Randall. 

The despot's heel is on thy shore, 

Maryland ! 
His torch is at thy temple door, 

Maryland ! 
Avenge the patriotic gore 
That flecked the streets of Baltimore, 
And be the battle-queen of yore, 
Maryland ! My Maryland ! 

Hark to an exiled son's appeal, 

Maryland ! 
My mother- State, to thee I kneel, 

Maryland ! 
For live and death, for woe and weal, 
Thy peerless chivalry reveal. 
And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel, 
Maryland ! My Maryland ! 



Thou wilt not cow^er in the dust, 

Maryland ! 
Thy beaming sword shall never rust, 

Maryland ! 
Remember Carroll's sacred trust ; 
Remember Howard's war-like thrust. 
And all thy slumb'rers with the just, 
Maryland ! My Maryland ! 



-15- 



Thoii wilt not yield the Vandal toll, 

Maryland ! 
Thou wilt not crook to his control, 

Maryland ! 
Better the fire upon the roll, 
Better the shot, the blade, the bowl, 
Than crucifixion of the soul, 

Maryland ! My Maryland ! 

I hear the distant thunder-hum, 

Maryland ! 
The Old Line bugle, fife and drum, 

Maryland ! 
She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb — 
Huzza ! She spurns the Northern scum ! 
She breathes ! She burns ! She'll come ! She'll come ! 
Maryland ! My Maryland ! 



6. THOMAS JEFFERSON, THE DECLARATION OF 

INDEPENDENCE AND FRANKLIN'S ANECDOTE 

OF THE "HATTER." 

According to admitted standards of greatness, Jefiferson was 
a great man. After all deductions on which his enemies might 
choose to insist, his character could not be denied great eleva- 
tion, great intellectuality, versatility, breadth, insight, and deli- 
cacy. He was as reserved as General Washington in the face 
of popular familiarities ; he never showed himself in crowds. 
During the last thirty years of his life, he was not seen in a 
northern city, even during his presidency ; nor indeed was he 
seen at all, except on horseback, or by his friends and visitors 
in his own house. With manners apparently popular, and in- 
formal, he led a life of his own, and allowed few persons to 
share it. His tastes, for that day, were exceedingly refined. 
The roughness of political life was an incessant torture to him, 
and personal attacks made him keenly unhappy. His tempera- 
ment was sunny and sanguine, and the atrabilious philosophy 
of New England was intolerable to him. He was keenly sen- 
sitive to criticism, and he refers to this in an anecdote of 
Franklin. 



—16— 

"When the Declaration of Independence was under the con- 
sideration of Congress, there were two or three unkicky ex- 
pressions in it, which gave offense to some members. Although 
the offensive expressions were removed, these gentlemen con- 
tinued their depredations on other parts of the instrument. I 
was sitting by Dr. Franklin, who perceived that I was not 
insensible to these mutilations, and consoled me by giving me 
an account of his lesson. 'When I was a journey-man printer, 
an apprentice hatter was about to open shop for himself. He 
composed this inscription of a sign-board, and submitted the 
inscription to his friends for their amendments : 'John Thomp- 
son, hatter, makes and sell hats for ready money,' with the 
figure of a hat subjoined. The first man thought hatter un- 
necessary because makes hats shows that he was a hatter. It 
was struck out. The next man observed that makes might be 
omitted, because no one cared who made the hats, if they 
were good. Struck out. A third thought for ready money 
useless, because contrary to custom to sell on credit ; struck 
out. The inscription now stood : "John Thompson sells hats." 
'Sells hats,' said his next friend 'does any body expect you 
to give them away ?' So sells was struck out and hats followed 
it ; and then the word hats as there was one painted on the 
board, so the inscription was ultimately reduced to John 
Thompson with the figure of the hat subjoined.' " 



7. STATUTE OF VIRGINIA FOR RELIGIOUS 
FREEDOM. 

Drawn by Jefferson and enacted by the General Assembly of 
Virginia, 1786. 

The General Assembly do enact : That no man shall be 
compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, 
or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, mo- 
lested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise 
sufifer, on account of his religious opinions or belief ; but that 
all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, 
their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall 
in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities. 



-17- 



8. JEFFERSON'S MOST FAMOUS WORDS. 
(For declamation by a boy.) 

When, in the course of human events it becomes necessary 
for one people to dissolve the political bands which have con- 
nected them with another, and to assume, among the powers 
of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws 
of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to 
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the 
causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident : — that all men are 
created equal ; that they are endowed by their creator with 
certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, 
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just 
powers from the consent of the governed ; and whenever any 
form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is 
the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 
a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, 
and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem 
most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, 
indeed, will dictate, that governments long established should 
not be changed for light and transient causes ; and accordingly 
all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed 
to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves 
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But 
when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing inva- 
riably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under 
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw 
off such government, and to provide new guards for their 
future securitv. — Extract from the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. 1776. 



3 TJ 



—18— 

9. ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 
By Daniel Webster. 

Adams and Jefferson are no more; and we are assembled, 
fellow-citizens, the aged, the middle-aged, and the young, by 
the spontaneous impulse of all, under the authority of the mu- 
nicipal government, with the presence of the chief magistrate 
of the Commonwealth, and others of its official representatives, 
the University, and the learned societies, to bear cur part in 
those manifestations of respect and gratitude which pervade 
the whole land. Adams and Jefferson are no more. On our 
fiftieth anniversary, the great day of national jubilee, in the 
very hour of public rejoicing, in the midst of echoing and re- 
echoing voices of thanksgiving, while their own names were on 
all tongues, they took their flight together to the world of 
spirits. 

If it be true that no one can safely be pronounced happy 
while he lives, if that even which terminates life can alone 
crown its honors and its glory, what felicity is here ! The 
great epic of their lives, how happily concluded ! Poetry itself 
has hardly terminated illustrious lives, and finished the career 
of earthly renown, by such a consummation. If we had the 
power, we could not wish to reverse this dispensation of the 
Divine Providence. The great objects of life were accom- 
plished, the drama was ready to be closed. It was closed ; 
our patriots have fallen ; but so fallen, at such age, with such 
coincidence, on such a day, that we can not rationally lament 
that that end has come, which we knew could not be long de- 
ferred. 

Neither of these great men, fellow-citizens, could have died, 
at any time, without leaving an immense void in our American 
society. They have been so intimately, and for so long a time, 
blended with the history of the country, and especially so 
united, in our thoughts and recollections, with the events of 
the Revolution, that the death of either would have touched the 
chords of public sympathy. We should have felt that one great 
link, connecting us with former times, was broken ; that we had 
lost something more, as it were, of the presence of the Revo- 
lution itself, and of the act of independence, and were driven 



—lo- 
on, by another great remove from the days of our country's 
early distinction, to meet posterity, and to mix with the future. 
Like the mariner, whom the currents of the ocean and the 
winds carry along, till he sees the stars which have directed 
his course and lighted his pathless way descend, one by one, 
beneath the rising horizon, we should have felt that the stream 
of time had borne us onward till another great luminary, whose 
light had cheered us and whose guidance we had followed, had 
sunk away from our sight. 

But the concurrence of their death on the anniversary of 
Independence has naturally awakened stronger emotions. Both 
had been presidents, both had lived to great age, both were 
early patriots, and both were distinguished and ever honored 
by their immediate agency in the act of independence. It can- 
not but seem striking and extraordinary, that these two should 
live to see the fiftieth year from the date of that act ; that they 
should complete the year ; and that then, on the day which 
had fast linked forever their own fame and their country's 
glory, the heavens should open to receive them both at once. 
As their lives themselves were the gifts of Providence, who 
is not willing to recognize in their happy termination, as well 
as in their long continuance, proofs that our country and its 
benefactors are objects of His care? — ^Extracts from a com- 
memorative discourse, Aug. 2, 1826, in The Works of Webster 
(1853), vol. i., pp. 113-115. 



-20— 



10. OBJECTS OF PRIMARY EDUCATION AS DE- 
FINED BY JEFFERSON. 



Mr. Jefferson thus defined the objects of primary education: 

1. To give to every citizen the information he needs for the 
transaction of his own business. 

2. To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express 
and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts in writing. 

3. To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties. 

-i. To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, 
and to discharge with competence, the functions confided to 
him by either. 

5. To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice 
those he retains ; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of 
those he delegates ; and to notice their conduct with diligence, 
with candor and judgment. 

6. And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faith- 
fulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed. 

This statement of the objects of primary education will never 
be improved. It ought to be written in letters of gold and 
hung in every primary school throughout the land and be 
known by heart to every teacher and child therein. It is, in- 
deed, more than a statement of the elements of rudimentary 
education. It is an enumeration of the duties of every good 
citizen under a popular government. — From Address on "The 
University of Virginia" in the Memorial Bdition of the JVrit- 
ings of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 2, p. xii. 



-21- 



11. THE FATHER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
VIRGINIA. 

By Dr. Herbert Baxter Adams. 

Emerson's words recur now with renewed force : "An insti- 
tution is the lengthened shadozv of one man." This saying has 
peculiar significance to one who has studied with some care 
the origin of the University of Virginia, and who has stood in 
front of Jefiferson's house at Monticello and looked across that 
beautiful country toward the "academic village" which repre- 
sents the best energies of his life. From that height Jefifer- 
son watched day by day the building of his University. It is a 
local tradition that often, when the work of the masons ap- 
peared to be going wrong, Jefiferson would mount his horse 
and ride over in hot haste to correct the error. We can well 
believe it ; for in August, 1820, he wrote to John Adams : 
"Our University, four miles distant, gives me frequent exer- 
cise, and the oftener, as I direct its architecture." The build- 
ings of the University of Virginia are Jefferson's thought ma- 
terialized in artistic form. If those pavilions and that grand 
rotunda should ever be shaken down by an earthquake, the fu- 
ture archaeologist might perhaps find the name of Jefferson 
upon every stone in the ruins. 

Jefferson died with the feeling that the University was not 
yet fully appreciated by his fellow-citizens ; but he was con- 
fident that posterity would do it justice. He once wrote to 
Cabell : "I have long been sensible that while I was endeavor- 
ing to render our country the greatest of all services, and plac-' 
ing our rising generation on the level of our sister States 
(which they have proudly held heretofore), I was discharging 
the odious function of a physician pouring medicine down the 
throat of a patient insensible of needing it. I am so sure of 
the future approbation of posterity, and of the inestimable ef- 
fect we shall have produced in the elevation of our counti:y 
by what we have done, as that I can not repent of the part 
I have borne in co-operation with my colleagues." The Uni- 
versity was the noblest work of Jefferson's life. His system of 
higher education marks the continuation of his personal, vital- 
izing influence in Virginia and in the country at large more 
truly than does any other of his original creations. 



—22— 

By order of Congress a new monument has lately been erect- 
ed upon the site of the old and battered shaft which stood over 
his grave in that little burying ground by the roadside, to 
the left as one goes towards the valley from Jefferson's old 
home. The new monument bears the inscription copied from 
the old stone, which has been piously removed to the campus 
of the University of the State of Missouri, at Columbia: 
"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration 
of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Relig- 
ious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia. 
Born April 2d, 1743, O. S. Died July 4th, 1826." 

Here lies a man who gave the best he had to his country, 
his State, his friends and neighbors, and to the University^ 
which bears not his name but that of Virginia. He sacrificed' 
a large private fortune in expenditures for the public good,, 
in the exercise of generous hospitality, and in meting obliga- 
tions incurred by indorsing the notes of a family friend, whose 
bankruptcy gave Jeft'erson what he called his coup de grace. — 
From Adams's Thomas Jefferson and the University of Vir- 
ginia (1888), p. 146. 



—23— 

12. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. 

By Henry S. Randai^l. 

(A declamation for three boys. If preferred, the teacher 
can read the first selection, the second and third to be read by 
pupils.) 

I 

For First Pupil. 

Mr. Jefiferson had conceived the design — he had foreseen the 
occasion — he had even given the signal to strike when the 
occasion came. 

It was no ordinary triumph of which he omitted to claim 
the glory. When from the bema of the Pnyx the flashing eye 
of Demosthenes glaced from the uptured faces of the people 
of Athens to the scenes of those heroic achievements which 
he invoked them to emulate, it looked beyond the Gulf of Sala- 
mis and the plain of Marathon. Parnes, in whose rocky gorge 
stood Phyle, towered before him in the north, and in the south 
the heights on whose southern bases broke the waves of the 
Aegean. Almost the whole land of Attica lay under his vis- 
ion, and near enough to have its great outlines distinguishable. 
What a world was clustered within that compass. 

The land of Attica, whose sword shook and whose civiliza- 
tion conquered the world, had the superficial area and about 
one third the agricultural productiveness of a moderate sized 
county in any of the American States which have been erected 
in the province of French Louisiana. 

No conqueror who has trod the earth to fill it with desola- 
tion and mourning, ever conquered and permanently amalga- 
mated with his native kingdom, a remote approach to the 
same extent of territory. 

But one kingdom in Europe equals the extent of one of its 
present States. Germany supports a population of thirty-seven 
millions of people. All Germany has a little more than the 
area of two-thirds of Nebraska ; and, acre for acre, less tillable 
land. Louisiana as densely populated in proportion to its 



-24- 



natnral materials of sustenation as parts of Europe, would be 
capable of supporting somewhere from four to five hundred 
millions of people. The whole United States became capable, 
by this acquisition, of sustaining a larger population than ever 
occupied Europe. 

The purchase secured, independently of territory, several 
prime national objects. It gave us that homogenousness, unity 
and independence which is derived from the absolute control 
and disposition of our commerce, trade and industry in every 
department, without the hindrance or meddling of any in- 
tervening nation between us and any natural element of indus- 
try between us and the sea, or between us and the open mar- 
ket of the world. It gave us ocean boundaries in all exposed 
sides, for it left Canada exposed to us and not us to Canada. 
It made us indisputably and forever (if our own Union is pre- 
served) the controllers of the western hemisphere. It placed 
our national course, character, civilization and destiny solely 
in our own hands. It gave us the certain sources of a not 
distant numerical strength to which that of the mightiest em- 
pires of the past or present is insignificant. — From Life of Jef- 
ferson, vol. iii., p. 6-1:. 

II 

For Second Pupil. 

A Gallic Caesar was leading his armies over shattered king- 
doms. His armed foot shook the world. He decimated Eu- 
rope. Millions of mankind perished, and there was scarcely 
a human habitation from the Polar Seas to the Mediterranean, 
where the voice of lamentation was not heard over slaughtered 
kindred, to swell the conqueror's strength and "glory." And 
the carnage and rapine of war are trifling evils compared 
with its demoralizations. The rolling tide of conquest sub- 
sided. France shrunk back to her ancient limits. Napoleon 
died a repining captive on a rock of the ocean. The studen- 
dous tragedy was played out ; and no physical results were left 
behind but decrease, depopulation and universal loss. — From 
Life, etc., vol. iii., p. 65. 



—25— 
III 

For Third Pupil. 

A republican President, on a distant continent, was also 
seeking to aggrandize his country. He led no armies. He 
shed not a solitary drop of human blood. He caused not a 
tear of human woe. He bent not one toiling back lower by 
governmental burdens. Strangest of political anomalies (and 
ludicrous as strange to the representatives of the ideas of the 
tyrannical and bloody past), he lightened the taxes while he 
was lightening the debts of a nation. And without interrupt- 
ing either of the meliorations for an instant — without im- 
posing a single new exaction on his people — he acquired, 
peaceably and permanently for his country, more extensive 
and fertile domains than ever for a moment owned the sway 
of Napoleon — more extensive ones than his gory plume ever 
floated over. 

Which of these victors deserves to be termed "glorious?" 
Yet, with that serene and unselfish equanimity, which ever 
preferred his cause to his vanity, this more than conqueror al- 
lowed his real agency in this great achievement to go unex- 
plained to the day of his death, and to be in good measure at- 
tributed to mere accident, taken advantage of quite as much 
by others as by himself. He wrote no laurelled letter. He 
asked no triumph. — Ibid. 



-26- 



13. STORIES OF JEFFERSON. 



By Edward Eggleston. 



One day Jefferson was traveling. He went on horse-back, 
which was a common way of traveling in those days. He stop- 
ped at a country tavern, where he talked with a stranger who 
was staying there. 

After awhile Jefferson rode away. Then the stranger said 
to the landlord, "Who is that man ? He knew so much about 
law, that I was sure he was a lawyer. But when we talked 
about medicine, he knew so much about that, that I thought 
he must be a doctor. After awhile he seemed to know so much 
about religion that I was sure he was a minister. Who is 
he?" 

Jefferson was a very polite man. One day, when his grand- 
son was riding with him, he met a negro who lifted his cap 
and bowed. Jefferson bowed to the negro, but his grandson 
did not think it worth while to do so. Then Jefferson said to 
his grandson, "Do not let a poor negro be more of a gentleman 
than you are." 



—27 



14. WASHINGTON'S ESTIMATE OF JEFFERSON. 



(As stated in the "Biographical OutHne," p. 9, Mr. Jeffer- 
son was Secretary of State in President Washington's first 
cabinet. In fact, he remained, at the President's request, for 
several months in the second cabinet in the same position, 
which he resigned. On that occasion the President sent him 
the letter which follows.) 

Philadelphia. 1 January, 1794. 

Dear Sir, 

I yesterday received, with sincere regret, your resignation 
of the office of Secretary of State. Since it has been impos- 
sible to prevail upon you to forego any longer the indulgence 
of your desire for private life, the event, however anxious I 
am to avert it, must be submitted to. 

But I cannot suffer you to leave your station without assur- 
ing you, that the opinion, which I had formed of your integ- 
rity and talents, and which dictated your original nomination, 
has been confirmed by the fullest experience ; and that both 
have been eminently displayed in the discharge of your duty. 

Let a conviction of my most earnest prayers for your hap- 
piness accompany you into your retirement ; and while I ac- 
cept, with the warmest thanks, your solicitude for my wel- 
fare, I beg you to believe that I always am, dear Sir, &c. 

Geo. Washington. 



—28— 

15. DIXIE'S LAND. 

By Daniel Decatur Emmett. 

I wish I wuz in he land ob cotton ; 
Old times dar am not forgotten ; 

Look away ! look away ! look away ! 
Dixie land. 
In Dixie land, whar I wuz born in, 
Early on one frosty mornin', 

Look away ! look away ! look away ! 
Dixie land. 

Chorus : 

Den I wish I were in Dixie, hooray ! hooray ! 

In Dixie land 
I'll took my stand 
To lib and die in Dixie. 

Away, away, away down South in Dixie. 
Away, away, away down South in Dixie. 



Old Missus marry "Will-de-weaber," 
William was a gay deceaber; 

Look away ! etc. 
But when he put his arm around 'er, 
He smiled as fierce as a forty pounder. 

Look away ! etc. 

Chorus — Den I wish I was in Dixie, etc. 

His face was sharp as a butcher's cleaber, 
But dat did not seem to greab 'er; 

Look away ! etc. 
Old Missus acted de foolish part, 
And died for a man dat broke her heart. 

Look away ! etc. 

Chorus — Den I wish I was in Dixie, etc. 



—29— 

Now here's a health to the next old Missus, 
And all de gals dat want to kiss us ; 

Look away ! etc. 
But if you want to drive 'way sorrow, 
Come and hear dis song to-morrow, 

Look away ! etc. 

Chorus — Den I wish I was in Dixie, etc. 

Dar's buckwheat cakes and Ingen' batter, 
Makes you fat or a little fatter; 

Look away ! etc. 
Den hoe it down an' scratch your grabble, 
To Dixie's land I'm bound to trabble. 

Look away ! etc. 

Chorus — Den I wish I was in Dixie, etc. 



mi 



-so- 



le. PATRIOTIC MOTIVES OF JEFFERSON. 



Patriotic motives moved Jefferson to the idea that youth who 
were to become American citizens needed such training in 
moral and poHtical science as would fit them for the practical 
duties of citizenship and self-government. Nothing is clearer 
in Jefferson's educational philosophy than his recognition of 
the importance of moral and political education under our 
American system of government. Our American colleges and 
universities have hardly yet risen to the Jeft'ersonian ideal in 
either of these great branches of education. As a matter of 
fact, there is almost no recognized connection between morals 
and politics, either in our organized system of instruction or in 
political life. 

Jefferson had the idea of establishing a school of law and 
politics, based upon ethics, natural science, and the ancient and 
modern languages, which were to be associated respectively 
with ancient and modern history and literature. x\Il the arts 
and sciences were to be tributary to the education of Ameri- 
can citizens for their highest duties. Separate the patriotic idea 
from the institution of the University of \'irginia and you have 
removed its roof and crown. Jeft'erson repeatedly expressed the 
idea that the University was patriotic in purpose ; it was to be 
for the benefit of his State and native country. He looked 
upon the appointment of English professors "as one of the ef- 
ficacious means of promoting that cordial good will which it 
is so much the interest of both nations to cherish." He wTote 
to the Hon. J. Evelyn Denison, a member of Parliament, that 
it was the interest of America to receive instruction through 
English teachers, and it was England's interest to furnish it; 
"for these two nations holding cordially together have nothing 
to fear from the united world. They will be the models for 
regenerating the condition of man, the sources from which 
representative government is to flow over the whole earth." 
Through Jefferson's plans for university education ran a broad 
and generous purpose ; but he was practical enough to see that" 
America must have her own political philosophy. — From 
Adams's University of Virginia, p. 135. 



—31- 



17. JEFFERSON ON POPULAR GOVERNMENT. 



Government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the 
people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only 
safe dispositories. And to render even them safe, their minds 
nnist be improved to a certain degree. This, indeed, is not 
all that is necessary, though it be essentially necessary. An 
amendment of our Constitution must here come in aid of the 
public education. The influence over Government must be 
shared among all the people. If every individual which com- 
poses their mass participates in the ultimate authority, the 
Government will be safe ; because the corrupting the whole 
mass will exceed any private resources of wealth ; and public 
ones cannot be provided but by levies on the people. In this 
case every man would have to pay his own price. The Gov- 
ernment of Great Britain has been corrupted, because but one 
man in ten has a right to vote for members of Parliament. The 
sellers of the Government, therefore, get nine-tenths of their 
price clear. It has been though that corruption is restrained 
by confirming the right of suffrage to a few of the wealthier 
of the people ; but it would be more effectually restrained by an 
extension of that right to such numbers as would bid defiance 
to the means of corruption. — From Jefferson's Notes on Vir- 
ginia (1853), p. 160. 



—32— 



18. JEFFERSON ON BOTANY. 



Jefferson was extremely practical in some of his scientific 
projects, and especially in the pursuit of botany. He wished 
to introduce plants and trees that would be useful to his coun- 
trymen. "For three-and-twenty years of the last twenty-five, 
by good old friend Thonin, superintendent of the Garden of 
Plants at Paris, has regularly sent me a box of seeds, of such 
exotics, as would suit our climate, and containing nothing 
indigenous to our country. These I regularly sent to the 
public and private gardens of the other States, having as yet 
no employment for them here." 

This letter was written only about two months' before Jef- 
ferson's death. Maintaining for nearly a quarter of a century 
his connections with Paris, the original source of Jefferson's 
enlarged ideas of university education, he had been scattering 
seeds from the Jardin des Plantes over the public and private 
gardens of America. Could there be a more pleasing historic 
picture of that dissemination of educational ideas' which has 
now gone on for more than two generations from the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, that seminary of higher learning, founded by 
the Sage of Monticello ? Broadcast over the entire South have 
been scattered the seeds of culture and the germs of science. 
Some have fallen by the wayside ; some where there was not 
much earth ; but some have fallen upon good ground. Little 
is known at the North concerning the University of Virginia, 
but it is barely possible that some seeds of Jeffersonian influ- 
ence have been wafted by the winds of destiny into the very 
gardens of New England culture. — From Adams's University 
of Virginia, p. 121. 



—33— 

19. COLUMBIA, THE GEM OF THE OCEAN. 

By Timothy Dwight. 

Oh, Columbia, the gem of the ocean. 
The home of the brave and the free, 
The shrine of each patriot's devotion, 
A world offers homage to thee. 
Thy mandates make heroes assemble 
When Liberty's form stands in view. 
Thy banners make tyranny tremble 
When borne by the red, white and blue, 
When borne by the red, white and blue. 
When borne by the red, white and blue. 
Thy banners make tyranny tremble. 
When borne by the red, white and blue [ 

When war wing'd its wide desolation. 
And threatened the land to deform, 
The ark then of freedom's foundation 
Columbia rode safe through the storm ; 
With the garlands of vict'ry around her. 
When so proudly she bore her brave crew, 
With her flag proudly floating before her, 
The boast of the red, white and blue ! 
The boast of the red, white and blue ! 
The boast of the red, white and blue ! 
With her flag proudly floating before her. 
The boast of the red, white and blue ! 

The star-spangled banner bring hither. 

O'er Columbia's true sons let it wave ; 

May the wreaths they have won never wither, 

Nor its stars cease to shine on the brave. 

May the service united ne'er sever. 

But hold to their colors so true ; 

The army and navy forever. 

Three cheers for the red, white and blue ! 

Three cheers for the red, white and blue ! 

Three cheers for the red, white and blue ! 

The army and navy forever, 

Three cheers for the red, white and blue! 



—34— 



20. TEFFERSOX AND OUR DECIMAL MONEY 
SYSTEM. 



By Wm. C. Swaxson. 



Having been invited by the Superintendent of Education to 
contribute something- to his pamphlet for the celebration in 
the schools of the birthday of Thomas JelTerson, I offer a 
brief statement relative to the connection of that great man 
with the origin of our present money system — a matter of 
interest to school children as well as to older people. 

Any boy or girl who has "done" arithmetic examples, in 
which the table of English money is used, has noticed how 
much more difficult and tedious is the operation than it would 
be if it involved values expressed in terms of American money. 
The difference is due. of course, to the fact that the scale of 
the English table, being irregular, requires, whether carried 
in the mind or put into figures, an amount of exertion with 
which the uniform scale of the American table enables the 
pupil to dispense. . 

The English or British money system was in use in our 
country throughout the Colonial and Revolutionary periods. 
After the Revolutionary war. one of the tasks confronting the 
United States Government was that of framing a convenient 
and practical scheme by which values could be measured and 
accounts kept — a scheme including what is called in the arith- 
metics a "money table." 

Our country then had no proper coinage of its own. Near- 
Iv all coins in circulation were from foreign mints and many 
of them clipped or counterfeited. The coin of common use was 
the Spanish "dollar," the value of which was uniform and 
well understood throughout the States, but in respect to coins 
of smaller value there was great confusion. The dollar we 
have mentioned ranged in value from six "shillings" ( in Mass. 
or Va.) to thirty-two-and-a-half "shillings" (in S. C. or Ga.) 

Under the Articles of Confederation, our National Govern- 
ment was carried on by a Congress, which, in turn, had 
provided for certain executive officers called Superintendents 
of departments. 



—35— 

In 1784 Robert Morris was Superintendent of the Depart- 
ment of Finance, Governeur Morris being his assistant. The 
Morrises were financiers. Mr. Jefferson was then a member 
of Congress in session at Annapohs. When the subject of 
coinage came up the Morrises presented a plan which embraced 
the "dollar" and the "cent," but at the same time fixed the 
unit of value at 1-1440 part of a dollar. Their plan embraced 
also the decimal idea, though not in a uniform scale or grade. 
The matter having been referred to a committee of which Mr. 
Jefferson was a member, he made a report conceding that "the 
general views of the financiers were sound and the principle 
"ingenious," but he considered that the unit was "too minute 
for ordinary use and too laborious for computation either by 
the head or in figures." As examples he cited that the price 
of a loaf of bread (l-20th doll.) would be 72 units, that of a 
pound of butter ( l-5th doll.) would be 288 units. "Such a 
system of money arithmetic," said he, "would be unmanageable 
for the common purposes of society." He therefore proposed, 
instead, to adopt the dollar itself as a unit of account and pay- 
ment, making its divisions, subdivisions, and multiples all in 
the decimal ratio. For coins he proposed a gold piece of ten 
dollars, a silver dollar, a silver tenth of a dollar (dime) and a 
copper hundredth of a dollar (cent.) Congress adopted this 
plan which today is essentially the American system of money 
arithmetic, in use in Canada as well as in the United States. 
The service thus rendered was one of the most useful and 
widely beneficial which Thomas Jefferson performed for his 
country. 



-36- 



21. JEFFERSON ON THE STUDY OF HISTORY. 

(Letter to one of the Professors of the University of Virginia, 
October 25, 1825.) 

I know not whether the professors to whom ancient and 
modern history are assigned in the University have yet decided 
on the course of historical reading which they will recommend 
to their schools. If they have, I wish this letter to be consid- 
ered as not written, as their course, the result of mature con- 
sideration, will be preferable to anything I could recommend. 
Under this uncertainty, and the rather as you are of neither 
of these schools, I may hazard some general ideas, to be cor- 
rected by what they may recommend hereafter. 

In all cases I prefer original authors to compilers. For a 
course of ancient history, therefore, of Greece and Rome espec- 
ially, I should advise the usual suite of Herodotus, Thucydides, 
Xenophon, Diodorus, Livy, Caesar, Suetonius, Tacitus, and 
Dion, in their originals if understood, and in translations if 
not. For its continuation to the final destruction of the Em- 
pire we must then be content with Gibbons (sic), a compiler, 
and with Segur for a judicious recapitulation of the whole. 
After this general course, there are a number of particular 
histories filling up the chasms, which may be read at leisure 
in the progress of life. Such is Arrian, Q. Curtius, Polybius, 
Sallust, Plutarch, Dionysius (of) Halicarnassus, Micasi, etc. 
The ancient universal history should be on our shelves as a 
book of general reference, the most learned and most faithful, 
perhaps, that ever was written. Its style is very plain but per- 
spicuous. 

In modern history, there are but two nations with whose 
course it is interesting to us to be intimately acquainted, to- 
wit : France and England. For the former, Millot's General 
History of France may be sufficient to the period when Da- 
vila commences. He should be followed by Perefixe, Sully, 
Voltaire's Louis XIV and XV, Lacretele's XVIII me Siecle, 
Marmontel's Regence, Foulongion's French Revolution, and 
Madame de Stael's, making up by a succession of particular 
history the general one which they want. 



—37— 

Of England there is as yet no general history so faithful as 
Rapin's. He may be followed by Ludlow, Fox, Belsham, 
Hume, and Brodie. Hume's, were it faithful, would be the 
finest piece of history which has ever been written by man. 
Its unfortunate bias may be partly ascribed to the accident of 
liis having written backwards. His maiden work was the His- 
tory of the Stuarts. It was a first essay to try his strength 
before the public. And whether as a Scotchman he had really 
a partiality for that family, or thought that the lower their 
degredation the more fame he should acquire by raising them 
up to some favor, the object of his work was an apology for 
them. He spared nothing, therefore, to wash them white and 
palliate their misgovernment. For this purpose he suppressed 
truths, advanced falsehoods, forged authorities, and falsified 
records. All this is proved to him unanswerably by Brodie. 
But so bewitching was his style and manner, that his readers 
were unwilling to doubt anything, swallowed everything, and 
all England became tories by the magic of his art. His pen 
revolutionized the public sentiment of that country more com- 
pletely than the standing armies could ever have done, which 
were so much dreaded and deprecated by the patriots of that 
-day. 



22. MONTICELLO, THE HOME OF JEFFERSON. 

By John Bach McMaster. 

When Pickering and his companions were about to begin 
their journey eastward, from one triumphant reception to an- 
other, Jefferson mounted his horse and made his way through 
snow and sleet to his beloved Monticello. Of all the houses 
yet built by man none was so much a part of the owner. 
What the shell is to the tortoise, all that was Monticello to 
Jefferson. The structure had grown with his growth, and 
bore all over it the marks of his individuality and curious in- 
ventive genius. The plan, the strange mixture of styles and 
orders, the bricks that formed the walls, the nails that held 
down the floors, much of the furniture, was the work of his 
own brain, or the manufacture of his own slaves. It was in 
the fittings and furnishings of his home, however, that the 



—38— 

mechanical bent of his mind found free play, and carried him 
close to the bounds of eccentricity. On the top of the house 
was a weather-vane, which marked the direction of the wind 
on a dial placed beneath the roof of the porch. Over the 
main doorway hung- a great clock, with one face for the porch 
and another for the hall. Cannon-balls were its weights, and 
one of them, as it passed down the wall, turned over each 
morning a metal plate inscribed with the day of the week. Not 
a sleeping-room contained a bedstead. Deep alcoves in the 
walls, with wooden frames for the mattresses, did duty instead. 
His own apartment was separated from this of his wife by 
two partitions, wide apart. Through these was cut an arch- 
way, taken up with the frame which supported the bed. One 
side of the bed was thus in the room of Mrs. JefTerson, and 
the other of the room of her husband. Above this archway 
was a closet, where in winter were stored the summer clothes 

and in summer the winter clothes of the entire family. In 
his library were his "whirligig chair," his tables with revolv- 
ing tops, and one with extension legs, to be used for writing 
in any position, sitting or standing. Trivial as these things 
seem, they are not to be forgotten in any attempt to judge 
the man. — From History of the People of tJie U. S., vol. iii., 
p. 337. 



23. LINCOLN'S TRIBUTE TO JEFFERSON. 

The principles of Jefiferson are the definitions and axioms of 
free society. And yet they are denied and evaded with no 
small show of success. * * * All honor to Jefferson — to the 
man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national 
independence by a single people, had the coolness, forecast, 
and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary docu- 
ment an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, 
and so to embalm it there that today and in all coming days 
it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling block to the very harbin- 
gers of reappearing tyranny and oppression. 

Extract from a letter of Abraham Lincoln to H. L. Pierce 
and others, of Boston. 



—39— 

24. SOME OF THE POLICIES AND EVENTS OF 
JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION ILLUS- 
TRATED BY PICTURES. 

This number can be used very effectively in the program 
for the little folks. As each figure is presented, a short ex- 
planation should be read by one of the student. 

Figure 1. Jefferson's fourfold idea of education. 

a. Primary school. 

b. High school. 

c. University. 

d. Public library. 

For representing the above figure the following suggestions 
are made : For a. have two little folks — a boy and a girl — ■ 
dressed in school costume, with books, lunch, etc., starting for 
school ; b. let a boy and girl represent this in whatever way 
seems most appropriate to the teacher; c. let the figures pre- 
senting this be dressed in a college cap and gown ; d. let this 
be represented by children made up as elderly people carrying 
home books from the public library. 

Figure 2. The Louisiana purchase. 

This figure might be presented by little girls — one for each 
state made from the territory included in the purchase. Each 
child might carry the flag of the state she represents, or a 
more elaborate presentation may be given. 

Figure 3. The war with the Barbary States'. 

This figure should be given by two boys, one dressed as 
a corsair and the other as a United States soldier. Let the 
latter have his foot on the neck of the former, as he lies at 
his feet, to indicate the suppression of piracy. 

Figure 4. The Lewis and Clark expedition. 

'This figure should also be given by little boys. There could 
be two dressed as explorers ; or others might be included 
dressed as Indians with whom the explorers are negotiating. 

Figure 5. The Declaration of Independence. 
A boy in colonial dress, sitting at a table writing. 






—40— 

25. AMERICA. 
By Samuel Francis Smith, 

1. My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing; 
Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the pilgrim's pride, 
From every mountain side 

Let freedom ring. 

2. My native country, thee 
Land of the noble free. 

Thy name I love; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills ; 
My heart with rapture thrills 

Like that above. 

3. Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees. 

Sweet freedom's song ; 
Let mortal tongues awake. 
Let all that breathe partake, 
Let rocks their silence break, 

The sound prolong. 

4. Our father's God, to Thee, 
Author of liberty, 

To thee we sing; 
Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light; 
Protect us by Thy might. 

Great God, our King. 



LEJa'12 



